Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

Change 1

AddedRecital 1: (1) Reporting requirements play a key role in ensuring proper monitoring and correct enforcement of legislation. However, it is important to streamline those requirements and promote harmonised, standardised and digitalised procedures in order to ensure that they fulfil the purpose for which they were intended and to reduce bureaucracy while limiting the administrative and financial burden.

AddedRecital 1 a (new): (1a) Enhanced clarity, transparency and coherence are needed to ensure the correct implementation of this Regulation as healthy plants are vital to sustainable agricultural and horticultural production and contribute to food security and food safety.

AddedRecital 1 b (new): (1b) Adequate public funding should be ensured in order to successfully manage outbreaks of harmful pests and diseases for crop plants, as well as to stimulate research and innovation in this area. It is essential to tackle the links between plant, animal, ecosystems and public health from a One Health perspective. Thus, European plant health partnerships should be encouraged following the example of the European partnership on animal health and welfare funded through the Horizon Europe Framework Programme.

AddedRecital 5: (5) As experience has shown during the application of Regulation (EU) 2016/2031, it is more effective, for the purpose of co-ordination of phytosanitary policy at Union level, to notify the demarcated areas immediately after their establishment. Immediate notification of demarcated areas by a Member State to the other Member States, the Commission and the professional operators helps to become aware about the presence and spread of the pest concerned and to decide on next measures to be taken. Therefore, Article 18(6) of Regulation (EU) 2016/2031 should establish an obligation for Member States to notify the Commission and the other Member States of the demarcated areas immediately after their establishment, together with the pests concerned and the respective measures taken. Such obligation should not add any new administrative or financial burden, because the immediate notification of demarcated areas is an existing obligation set out in Annex I, point 7.1, to Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/171510 and is currently practised by all Member States. Setting out that obligation in Article 18(6) of Regulation (EU) 2016/2031 will further enhance clarity about the applicable rules concerning demarcated areas, while the respective obligation in Implementing Regulation (EU) 2019/1715 should be removed to avoid overlaps of the respective provisions.

Change 2

ChangedRecital 10: (10) During the implementation of that provision, certain Member States expressed their doubts concerning the precise scope of the term ‘measures’, and in particular whether it concerns actions taken in the context of imports or internal movement of goods, in order to prevent the entry and spread of the respective pest in the Union territory. Therefore, and for reasons of legal clarity and completeness, Article 30(1) should be amended to specifically indicate that those measures may include the prohibition of the respective pest´s introduction into, movement within, or holding, multiplication or release in the Union territory, and requirements concerning the introduction into, and movement within, the Union of plants, plant products and other objects.objects, in accordance with Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/829.

Change 3

ChangedRecital 12: (12) However, no requirement to notify non-compliance with the respective rules exists in Article 37 of Regulation (EU) 2016/2031, which concerns measures to prevent the presence of regulated non-quarantine pests (‘RNQPs’) on plants for planting above the specified thresholds when introduced into or moved within the Union territory.

Change 4

ChangedRecital 13: (13) Consequently, Article 104 of Regulation (EU) 2016/2031, which concerns notifications in the case of presence of pests, should also include a reference to Article 37(10).37(10) of that Regulation.

Change 5

AddedRecital 15: (15) For purposes of clarity, consistency and transparency, the Commission should be empowered to adopt implementing acts providing for such derogations. For reasons of completeness, those acts should also set out the temporary and proportional measures [which are necessary to reduce the respective phytosanitary risk to an acceptable level and which allow the appropriate time for the full assessment of all pest risks, which are not yet fully assessed in relation to the particular plants, plant products or other objects. This will allow, once the respective assessment is completed, in accordance with the principles of Section 2 of Annex II to Regulation (EU) 2016/2031, those plants, plant products or other objects to be kept in or removed from the list of commodities in accordance with Article 40(3) or Article 41(3) of Regulation (EU) 2016/2031.

AddedRecital 19: (19) The Commission should be empowered to adopt a delegated act, supplementing this Regulation by setting out procedures to be complied with for the listing of high risk plants, plant products and other objects. That procedure should include all of the following elements: the preparation, content and submission of the respective dossiers by the third countries concerned; the actions to be taken following the reception of those dossiers; the procedures on the performance of the respective risk assessment; the handling of dossiers concerning confidentiality and data protection. This is necessary because, experience has shown that a specified procedure in respect of listing high risk plants could guarantee transparency and consistency to Member States, third countries and the professional operators concerned, and, at the same time, creates a coherent and efficient system that not only responds to phytosanitary threats, but also facilitates international collaboration and promotes an ethical and transparent conduct in global risk management.

Change 6

AddedRecital 25 b (new): (25b) As experience since the adoption of Regulation (EU) 2016/2031 has shown, in certain cases it is appropriate that certain plants, plant products or other objects should not be accompanied by a plant passport, even if they are distributed through distance sales. Therefore the Commission should be empowered to adopt implementing acts allowing it to provide that Article 81(1), point (a), is not to apply, under certain conditions, to particular plants, plants products or other objects distributed by means of sales through distance contracts.

Change 7

ChangedArticle 1 – paragraph 1 – point 1 a (new), Article 19 – paragraph 7 a (new): (1a) in Article 19, the following paragraph is added: / ‘7a. The notifications referred to in paragraph 2 of this Article and the abolition of the demarcated areas referred to in paragraph 4 of this Article shall be made through the electronic notification system referred to in Article 103’;

Change 8

ChangedArticle 1 – paragraph 1 – point 1 b (new), Article 19 a (new): (1b) theThe following Articlearticle is inserted: / ‘Article 19a / Plant Health Emergency Team / 1. A Union Plant Health Emergency Team (‘the Team’) composed of experts shall be created with the purpose of providing Member States, upon their request, with urgent assistance on the measures to be taken pursuant to Articles 10 to 19, 27 and 28 of Regulation (EU) 2016/2031 concerning new outbreaks of Union quarantine pests and pests subject to the measures adopted pursuant to Article 30.30 of that Regulation. The Team shall partake in EU-level simulation exercises pursuant to Article 26 of that Regulation. In well-justified cases, the Team may also provide urgent assistance to third countries bordering the Union territory or presenting an imminent phytosanitary risk for that territory, upon their request, where necessary, concerning the outbreaks in their territories of Union quarantine pests and pests subject to the measures adopted pursuant to Article 30.30 /of that Regulation. For each case of assistance to a Member State or third country, the Commission shall appoint specific members of thatthe team,Team, on the basis of their expertise, and in consultation with that Member State or the third country concerned. / That assistance shallmay include in particular: / (a) scientific, technical and managerial on-the-spot or remote assistance as regards the eradication of the pests concernedconcerned, the prevention of their spread, and other measures, in close cooperation and collaboration with the competent authorities of the Member State or third country concerned by outbreaks of pests or suspicion thereof; / (b) specific scientific advice on the suitable diagnostic methods in coordination with the relevant Europe……